John RussellCBE (22 January 1919 – 23 August 2008) was an Englishart critic and journalist.

John Russell was born inFleet, Hampshire, England, in 1919. He attendedSt Paul's School and thenMagdalen College,Oxford.

He was an unpaid intern at theTate Gallery in 1940, but moved to the country after the gallery was bombed. DuringWorld War II he worked inNaval Intelligence for theAdmiralty. There he metIan Fleming, who helped to secure Russell a reviewing position atThe Sunday Times. Russell succeeded a fired critic atThe Sunday Times in 1950.

Art criticHilton Kramer ofThe New York Times hired Russell in 1974. Russell was chief art critic there from 1982 to 1990.

Russell was married to:

• Alexandrina, Countess Apponyi de Nagy-Appony, the former wife of Julius Lanczy. They married in 1945, divorced in 1951, and had one child, Lavinia (marriedSir Nicholas Grimshaw).^[1]
• Vera Poliakoff (died 1992), married 1956, divorced 1971.^[1] Also known professionally as Vera Lindsay, she was an artist and actress, daughter of Vladimir Poliakoff and former wife of British journalist Sir Gerald Reid Barry, with whom she had two sons.
• Rosamond Bernier (née Rosamond Margaret Rosenbaum, formerly Mrs Georges Bernier, formerly Mrs Lewis Riley), a lecturer and founder of the art magazineL'ŒIL. They married in 1975.

Russell died on 23 August 2008 at a hospice in theBronx.^[2]

His books include:

• Shakespeare's Country (1942; revised 1946) revised & reprinted
• Switzerland (1950) reprinted
• Erich Kleiber: A Memoir (1957)
• Paris (1960; reprinted 1983)
• Francis Bacon (1964; reprinted 1971, 1979, 1985, 1993 etc.) reprinted & revised
• Seurat (1965) 'The World of Art Library' seriesISBN 0-500-20032-7
• Vuillard (1971)ISBN 0-8212-0281-2
• Henry Moore (1973)ISBN 0-1402-1622-7
• Turner in Switzerland (1976) with Andrew Wilton
• The Meanings of Modern Art (1981; revised 1992)ISBN 0-500-27573-4
• Reading Russell: On Ideas, Literature, Art, Theatre, Music, Places and Persons (1989)ISBN 978-0-500-23568-3
• Matisse: Father & Son (Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1999)ISBN 0-8109-4378-6
• Marc Klionsky (Hudson Hills, 2004)

• 1919 births
• 2008 deaths
• People educated at St Paul's School, London
• Alumni of Magdalen College, Oxford
• Royal Navy personnel of World War II
• English art critics
• The Sunday Times people
• The New York Times journalists
• Commanders of the Order of the British Empire
• People from Fleet, Hampshire
• English male non-fiction writers
• 20th-century English male writers
• British expatriates in the United States
• The New York Times critics

• Articles with short description
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• Use dmy dates from September 2021